


You give me fever (like I've never known)

by mseg_21



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Hot/Cold, It Fandom Week, M/M, Reddie, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-02 16:12:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15800049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mseg_21/pseuds/mseg_21
Summary: “You could have just told me you were sick.” Eddie replied. “It’s not like I would have been mad.”“No but if I told you I was sick then I wouldn’t get to spend time with you.” Richie whined.Eddie smiled softly at him. “That’s not true. I would’ve stopped by and taken care of you, you dork.”Richie tilted his head to the side. “You would have?”[It Fandom Week]





	You give me fever (like I've never known)

Richie Tozier woke up on Saturday feeling like shit. 

His head was pounding, he had a sore throat and he was soaked in cold sweat. He had been feeling just fine last night when he went to bed but during the night, he woke up several times, some feeling too warm and others, shivering from the cold. 

This time, it was the former. He groaned, throwing the blankets off of him, feeling too warm. He blinked his eyes open, squinting at the sunlight filtering through the window. The back of his eyes felt like they were on fire. 

Richie could feel his phone vibrating somewhere on his bed and he blindly searched for it. Once he found it, he saw that he had several messages from his friends. He checked the time and he understood why. It was one in the afternoon and his friends had been texting him since 9 AM.

_ Bill: Are we still meeting at the quarry at 10? _

_ Ben: Do you need me to pick you up, Rich? _

_ Stan: I think I left my book at your place, Trashmouth. Can you bring it to the quarry? _

_ Bev: Hey asshole, you alive? _

_ Eddie: Where the fuck are you, Richie? _

_ Mike: Okay, Rich, we are officially worried. Where are you? _

And so on. 

Richie groaned. He forgot he was supposed to go to the quarry with them today and hadn’t set an alarm, he didn’t expect to sleep until so late. 

He dialed Eddie’s number, he had sent most of the texts and he was first on Richie’s contact list, saved under  ❤︎ Eds ❤︎ .

“Hello?” Eddie said when he answered, a bit breathless. He was probably far from the phone when he heard it ring.

Richie groaned. Eddie’s voice wasn’t even that loud but the noise made his head pound. He held his phone a little away from his ear to muffle the sound. 

“Richie?” Eddie questioned. “Where the fuck are you?”

“My house.” Richie said, his voice hoarse and scrappy. He coughed a couple of times, trying to smooth it out. 

“I went to your house. No one answered. And the door was locked.” Eddie said, clearly annoyed.

“Sorry, Eds. I was asleep.”

“At what time did you wake up?”

“Just now. I feel awful.”

“Probably from sleeping too much, Rich.”

“Are you guys still at the quarry?”

“Yeah, but we’re leaving soon. Mike has to go back to the farm. Bill, Stan and Ben have a project due on Monday and Bev has to go shopping with her aunt.”

“What about you, Spaghetti?”

“I don’t have anything to do. I was actually going to swing by your place, see if you wanted to do something today? With me?” Eddie said, nervously. 

Richie smiled at that. It warmed his heart that Eddie still got nervous when ever he suggested the two of them hung out alone. Sure, it had only been a couple of weeks since they started dating, but Eddie and Richie had been hanging out by themselves long before that. Richie couldn’t blame him though, he still felt all happy and giddy whenever he spent time with Eddie or when he talked to him. Like now, he could already feel butterflies fluttering in his stomach at the prospect of going out with him.

“Shit, you’re quiet today.” Eddie muttered, pulling Richie out of his thoughts. “Are you sure you’re okay? Oh. Wait. Maybe you don’t want to hang out with me. Fuck, that’s okay. It’s not like you have to. I just- I thought you might want to go see a movie or I don’t know.” 

Richie chuckled. Eddie would always ramble when he was nervous, he could picture him all the way from the other side of the line, flushed with embarrassment, trying to figure out how to take back what he had said or an excuse to end the call. As if Richie would say no to spending time with Eddie. Ever. 

“Eddie, my dear, there is nothing I want more than to go see a movie with you.” Richie said, but the pain in his throat when he spoke told him it was probably a bad idea to go out of his house today. Richie chose to ignore it. If he backed down now, Eddie would think he was lying and just didn’t want to hang out with him. Then he would close in on himself and their relationship would be over before it even started and Richie would never get to marry him, or have kids with him and Richie would die alone. He wasn’t ready to take that big a risk. He just had to keep how he felt from Eddie. 

He opened his mouth to tell Eddie to meet him at the Aladdin, when his lung decided to try and climb up his throat, driving Richie to a terrible coughing fit. 

“Damn Rich. Are you alright?” Eddie asked, worried, when it took Richie a couple of minutes to get the coughing under control. “Wait, are you sick?” 

Richie frowned. If Eddie realized he was sick, there was no way he would go to the movies with him. He would cancel their plans and quarantine him or something. Richie didn’t want that. He wanted his much needed Spaghetti time, damn it. 

That is why he cleared his throat to try and sound as healthy as possible, when he spoke again. “I’m fine, Eds. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.”

He could practically hear Eddie narrowing his eyes at him through the phone. “You’re sick aren’t you? That’s why you slept so much, and why your voice is hoarse.”

“Nah, Eds. My voice is hoarse because your mom likes to make me scream.” Richie joked. 

Eddie groaned. “Beep beep, you idiot. I’m serious. If you’re sick you should stay home.”

“I’m not sick, Eds. And I don’t want to stay home. I want to go to the movies with you.” Richie said, earnestly.

Eddie sighed. “Fine. But if I find out you’re sick, you’ll be in so much trouble, Tozier.”

* * *

They decided to meet at the Aladdin in an hour, which gave Richie enough time to take two showers to get rid of the sweat, down half a dozen pills for his headache and do gargles with warm salt water to relieve his sore throat. Inside, he still felt like shit but at least now, Eddie wouldn't know.

That didn’t mean Eddie didn’t studied him closely when he showed up, trying to catch Richie in the lie. But Richie was great at pretending things were fine when they weren’t (albeit, it was harder when it came to his very best friend) and when he waved excitedly at Eddie and hugged him hello, Eddie didn’t do anything other than return the hug.

Richie wished he could kiss Eddie though, but he didn’t want him to get sick too. The fact that he hugged him instead wasn’t weird at all. They were standing in the middle of the parking lot, in broad daylight and even if they weren’t hiding their relationship, they tried to keep a low profile unless there were only around their friends. In that case, they threw caution to the wind and kissed and hugged and held hands, much to their friends’ chagrin. 

“Hi, my dear Eddie Spaghetti.” Richie muttered against Eddie’s neck, making a shiver run down the smaller boy’s body. 

“Hi, Rich.” Eddie said, face pressed against his chest. “I missed you at the quarry today.” He added, lacing his own fingers together behind Richie’s back. 

The gesture and his words filled Richie’s stomach with butterflies. “I missed you too. I’m sorry I slept in.” 

Eddie shrugged and he pulled back, even though Richie was content with staying like that, just holding him in the parking lot of the Aladdin. 

“I bought our tickets already. It’s for some sci-fi movie. There wasn’t much to choose from.” Eddie said. Even though they weren’t hugging anymore, the two of them stood close to each other. 

“It doesn’t matter, because it’s you I’ll be watching, not the movie.” Richie said, booping Eddie on the nose, who in response scrunched it up, adorably. “Let’s go, I’ll buy you some popcorn. Extra butter, just like you like them.”

Eddie smiled at him and nodded. Richie dragged him by his hand towards the candy stand. So far, he didn’t suspect anything about Richie’s state. At least, not until Richie didn’t buy anything for himself. His throat was still sore, and it hurt to swallow any food, including the gummy worms he always bought, not to mention, a cold drink wouldn’t help with the pain. 

When Eddie asked what was wrong with him, Richie just shrugged and made up some excuse about eating before coming there. Needless to say, Eddie wasn’t convinced. But the movie was about to start and he chose to ignore it. 

They sat down on the back, like they always did, even though there wasn’t many people in the cinema room. They talked until the opening credits appeared and by then Richie was feeling a bit better. His headache wasn’t as bad and his throat didn’t hurt that much. That was until the air conditioning in the room started to work, somehow bringing back the low grade fever Richie had been running since last night. 

He started to feel cold all over, so he pulled the sleeves of his Henley over his hands before tucking them under his legs, trying to warm them up. Contrary to what he had said, Eddie was actually invested in the movie and didn’t notice when Richie started shivering from the fever chills. 

When Eddie finished eating all of his popcorn, he placed the bucket on the floor, next to his feet. Then he tried to find Richie’s hand with his but when he couldn’t, he took his eyes off the screen and turned to frown at Richie, who was doing an inhuman effort to keep his teeth from chattering.

“Are you cold?” Eddie whispered. 

“A bit.” Richie muttered back. “It must be the A/C.”

Eddie nodded and lifted the armchair so that he could scoot closer to Richie and throw his arms around him. 

Richie froze, before relaxing into the hug. He wished he had been using the cold as an excuse to get Eddie to hold him, because then he could enjoy the gesture, instead of focusing on trying to suppress the shivers.  

They stayed like that for a while, and there were a couple of minutes in which the fever chills subsided and Richie was able to enjoy the moment, but not long after he felt his temperature start to rise, making him feel too warm and break into a sweat. 

Eddie’s heat started suffocating him but he couldn’t bring himself to pull away from him, not to mention it would bring Eddie’s attention to the fact that he was burning up right now, even though, just minutes ago he had been shivering from the cold. 

Absentmindedly, Eddie’s hand found its way to Richie’s hair, smoothing it down. At some point his hand came in contact with Richie’s forehead and he flinched. 

“Damn, Richie. You’re burning up!” Eddie whispered yelled. 

Richie snorted. “Uh- you’re just too hot, Eds.” He said, trying to distract him. 

Eddie pulled back and he placed the back of his hand on Richie’s forehead and even in the dark, Richie could see his eyebrows disappear under his hairline, in surprise. He could practically hear the gears turning in Eddie’s head as he started to piece stuff together. 

“You fucking idiot!” Eddie said. And the four other people in the cinema shushed him. Lowering his voice, he added. “You have been sick this whole fucking time, haven’t you?”

“Uh, I-”

“Don’t lie to me.” Eddie cut him off. 

Richie sighed. “You’re right. But Eds-”

Eddie didn’t let him finish, he grabbed Richie’s hand and stood up, before dragging him outside. Richie followed suit, dreading Eddie’s anger once they made it somewhere where he wouldn’t have to keep quiet. 

They made it back to the parking lot, before Eddie stopped and turned around to face him. His expression was angry, and Richie flinched. But when his eyes settled on Richie, his gaze softened. 

“Rich. You look terrible.” 

Richie snorted. “Gee, Eds. Thanks.” He said, but the truth was that he felt terrible and he guessed his appearance reflected that. He felt awfully tired and every inch of his body ached. His headache had returned and his eyes itched behind his glasses. There was also the soreness in his throat and the fact that he felt like a walking furnace. 

Eddie shook his head, disapprovingly. “Why didn’t you say anything?” 

Richie shrugged. “You know I can never say no to you, Eds and you wanted to hang out.”

“You could have just told me you were sick.” Eddie replied. “It’s not like I would have been mad.”

“No but if I told you I was sick then I wouldn’t get to spend time with you.” Richie whined. 

Eddie smiled softly at him. “That’s not true. I would’ve stopped by and taken care of you, you dork.” 

Richie tilted his head to the side. “You would have?” 

“Of course. Like I would just let my boyfriend sick and alone at his house.” Eddie said, with a roll of his eyes. 

“Did you just- you just called yourself my boyfriend.” Richie said, in amazement. 

Eddie’s eyes widened and he shook his head vehemently. “No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did.” 

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did. Do you want to be my boyfriend, Eds? You do, don’t you?” Richie teased him. 

“You know what? I take it back.  _ You  _ take care of yourself.” Eddie said, glaring at Richie. He turned around trying to keep Richie from seeing the blush on his cheeks. 

Richie grabbed his hand to stop him. “No no no. Come on, Eds.” Richie whined. “I need you to take care of me. Everything hurts and I feel like my entire body is on fire. I’ll shut up.”

“We both know that you won’t.” Eddie said. Richie just shrugged. “Fine. Let’s go. We need to lower that fever and I can make you some soup.” 

Eddie grabbed Richie’s hand and they started walking. Richie smiled down at him. “You’re the best. You know that, right Eddie Spaghetti?”

Eddie snorted. “And you’re an idiot, Richie Tozier. I can’t believe you felt like shit and lied to me just to come see a movie with me.”

“Anything for you, Eds.”

“You’re lucky you didn’t kiss me when you saw me. Or else I would kill you for getting me sick as well.” Eddie muttered, making Richie snicker. “Why are you laughing?”

“If I had kissed you and you had gotten sick, does that mean I would have given you fever, like you’ve never known?” Richie said, his eyebrows dancing. 

Eddie rolled his eyes but the corners of his mouth curled up in a fond smile. “Are you high right now? Just how many painkillers did you take before coming here?”

“I don’t need drugs to feel high around you, Eddie my love.” 

Eddie let out a laugh. “Alright, Romeo. Let’s get you home before you pass out on me.”

After that, the two of them made their way to Richie’s house where Eddie took care of his idiot maybe-boyfriend and made sure he was okay before going to his own house. 

And when he woke up the next day with a sore throat and a headache of his own, Eddie remembered how last night, when he had been feeling better and was indeed high on painkillers, Richie had told Eddie he wanted to officially be Eddie’s boyfriend, and he found he only wanted to kill Richie _ a tiny little _ bit for being the reason he was now sick too.

**Author's Note:**

> You can leave a comment or come find me on tumblr! 
> 
> [jem-castairs-is-perfection](http://jem-carstairs-is-perfection.tumblr.com/)


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